Feeling older, walking slower—but only if someone’s watching. Subjective age is associated with walking speed in the laboratory, but not in real life

Nanna Notthoff (), Johanna Drewelies, Paulina Kazanecka, Elisabeth Steinhagen-Thiessen, Kristina Norman, Sandra Düzel, Martin Daumer, Ulman Lindenberger, Ilja Demuth and Denis Gerstorf
Additional contact information
Nanna Notthoff: Humboldt University
Johanna Drewelies: Humboldt University
Paulina Kazanecka: Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin
Elisabeth Steinhagen-Thiessen: Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin
Kristina Norman: Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin
Sandra Düzel: Max Planck Institute for Human Development
Martin Daumer: Sylvia Lawry Centre for Multiple Sclerosis Research, e.V.
Ulman Lindenberger: Max Planck Institute for Human Development
Ilja Demuth: Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin
Denis Gerstorf: Humboldt University

European Journal of Ageing, 2018, vol. 15, issue 4, No 10, 425-433

Abstract: Abstract The huge inter-individual differences in how people age have prompted researchers to examine whether people’s own perception of how old they are—their subjective age—could be a better predictor of relevant outcomes than their actual chronological age. Indeed, how old people feel does predict mortality hazards, and health-related measures such as walking speed may account for this association. In the present study, we extended this line of work by investigating whether subjective age also predicts walking speed and running speed in daily life or whether the predictive effects of subjective age for behavior manifest only within a controlled performance situation. We used data from 80 older participants (age range 62–82 years; M = 69.50, SD = 4.47) from the Berlin Aging Study II (BASE-II). Subjective age was assessed by self-report. Walking speed in the laboratory was measured with the Timed Up and Go test, and walking speed and running speed in real life were measured with an accelerometer. Results showed that compared to participants who felt older, those who felt younger than they actually were indeed walked faster in the laboratory, but they did not walk or run faster in real life. These patterns of results held when age, gender, education, BMI, comorbidity, depression, physical activity, and cognition were covaried. We discuss the role of stereotype threat in accounting for these results.

Keywords: Walking speed; Subjective age; Age stereotypes; Health; Running speed (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10433-017-0450-3 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:eujoag:v:15:y:2018:i:4:d:10.1007_s10433-017-0450-3

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.springer ... iences/journal/10433

DOI: 10.1007/s10433-017-0450-3

Access Statistics for this article

European Journal of Ageing is currently edited by Marja Aartsen, Susanne Iwarsson and Prof. Dr. Matthias Kliegel

More articles in European Journal of Ageing from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().